Undercurrent Online Update for Non-Subscribers

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May 16, 2022

Vortex Grounding Causes More Problems for Pacific Fleet. The 140 ft, Vortex, from the same fleet as the Solmar V, ran aground May 9 near Socorro Island in Mexico's Revillagigedo archipelago. The Mexican navy rescued all 14 passengers and 11 crew members who had taken to life rafts. Once a Canadian Coast Guard boat, the newly refurbished Vortex had just started operating this year. Meanwhile, the boat is being assessed to determine whether it can be salvaged. If you were on this ill-fated voyage, email us at benddavison@undercurrent.org . . . In April, we reported that the other Pacific Fleet liveaboard, the Solmar V, had operational problems requiring last-minute cancellations, leaving passengers stranded at their Cabo Hotels. Does the Pacific Fleet owe you any money from the Solmar fiasco? Please email us at benddavison@undercurrent.org.

Dive Travel Insurance Woes? We need your Help: COVID disrupted dive plans for thousands upon thousands of divers, and many lost lots of money. We’re working on a story about the best travel insurance for divers, and if you have any travel insurance problems, we would like to hear about them. Not just with DAN or DiveAssure, but with any insurance carrier. Let us know how your reimbursement went, good or bad. Please tell us your story. Write to benddavison@undercurrent.org.

Travelers, Study those COVID Entry Requirements Carefully: A long time Undercurrent subscriber was stopped at Cayman Immigration on Sunday, May 1, because they would not accept the COVID test he had taken Friday, April 29, a day before his April 30 departure from San Francisco. You see, he changed planes in Charlotte, and Cayman Immigration considered his actual departure point as Charlotte, so his test did not meet their one-day test requirement. He had to be re-tested on Grand Cayman, which took lots of time and a little money. He says travelers should know that their departure date is not from their U.S. origin point, but rather, from their U.S. exit point.

Why You Should Subscribe to Undercurrent. When you're a subscriber, you can access nearly 400 new travel reports posted by readers who have started diving once again. They're back at resorts and liveaboard worldwide, and nowhere else can you find such honest and unedited appraisals not driven by advertising. And, of course, 10 months a year, you'll get our exclusive 16-page newsletter that will keep you up to date on the safe spots to travel and where you should avoid traveling, with stories by our undercover writers who pay their own way. Get the latest on the Keys, Belize, Indonesia, Bonaire, Hawaii; Undercurrent is there. And we report on unique safety issues -- like that bent diver who ignored her computer and listened to her guide -- equipment, and much, much more. For two more days, I am offering you a seven-month trial subscription for just $19.95. And I'll send you a FREE download of my great scuba thriller set in Belize -- Tropical Ice. If at any time during this period you want your money back, you'll get it, a promise I've kept since 1975. Click Here.

No Lobsters for New Hampshire Scuba Divers? Lobsters were the unlikely subject of a lively debate on the New Hampshire Senate floor this month, where Senators voted down a bill that would have allowed recreational scuba divers to take a few home for a lobster bake. The bill would require divers to harvest lobsters by hand, but they could use a "tickle stick" to encourage them to come into the open. The state's commercial lobster industry wanted no competition, and the Senate agreed. After all, the warming Atlantic is causing lobsters to march north toward Canada, and who knows how long they'll hang around that brief 13-mile New Hampshire coastline?

What, Another Liveaboard Sinks, this time the Colombian MV Maria Patricia, which infamously lost several divers off Malpelo Island nearly five years ago (see Undercurrent September 2017). It ran aground and sank while divers were underwater. One crewman lost his life when he jumped into rough seas and water too shallow. There are no other reports of fatalities. Let us know if you were on this vessel. benddavison@undercurrent.org

Mass Extinction of Marine Life. The world's oceans have long been a safeguard against climate change, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide and trapped heat as people burned fossil fuels and razed forests. But that has come at a cost. Last year, the oceans reached their highest temperature and lowest oxygen content since humans started keeping track. Changes to the ocean's chemistry are threatening fish, and coral reefs are in steep decline. A new study by geoscientists at Princeton University finds that if fossil fuel emissions continue at the present rate, the oceans could experience a mass extinction by the year 2300. New York Times

Diving at the Elphinstone Reef

Diver Eaten by a Shark. The body of a Swiss diver went missing on May 2 during a Red Sea dive from MY Grand Sea Serpent. A day later, divers from the liveaboard recovered it more than 165 feet deep at the north tongue of Elphinstone Reef. It had been ripped apart by a shark, but Red Sea shark expert Dr. Elke Bojanowski told Undercurrent that the divers who first spotted the body insisted it was intact, so it may have been mauled before other divers could go deep enough to retrieve it. Our informant witnessed the body's recovery from the liveaboard Blue Adventurer moored nearby and said it was not a pretty sight. The Elphinstone was closed to divers for six days.

Coming Soon in Undercurrent: The Scuba Scene fire -- first-hand accounts … Dolphins versus divers … Sunscreens damage seagrass … COVID in the Ocean? A Little-Known Resort in Belize ... Caymans’ Best Diving … the Undersea Explorer -- a Caribbean Liveaboard … The Dangers to Reef Fish of Debris in the Ocean … Have You Been Overtaken in the Race for New Certifications? … Dive Magazine Awards and Why they are Defective … A Letter of Protest from a Dive Center Owner … How the Law Catches Up with some Dive Centers … Another Ecological Problem in the Caribbean … When Old Divers went Deep on Air … and much, much more.

Aqualung Recalls the i330R Dive Computer. The company has discovered a fault in the computer software, prohibiting automatic adjustment when the computer is used at altitudes above 3000 feet. It does not only affect those diving in Lake Titicaca (13,000-feet), but many inland dive sites, like Lake Tahoe, are at an altitude greater than you might think. Aqualung wants every owner of an i330R to stop using it immediately and either download a firmware update through the DiverLog+ app or take the computer to an authorized dealer to download and install the upgrade. The new firmware revision shall read R1.004 or later.

Feeling chilled? Watch This Movie. In 2010, Johanna Nordblad had a bike accident resulting in a broken leg. A doctor advised her to use cold water treatments, and in 2015 she set a women's world record by swimming 164 feet under the ice in one breath. In March 2021, she swam a CMAS-certified 338 feet without fins or wetsuit beneath two-foot-thick ice at Lake Ollori near Hossa, Finland. She stars in a Netflix documentary in which she attempts to set a world record for distance traveled under the ice with one breath. It premiered on Netflix on May 3. Watch the Movie.

Why You Should Subscribe to Undercurrent. When you're a subscriber, you can access nearly 400 new travel reports posted by readers who have started diving once again. They're back at resorts and liveaboard worldwide, and nowhere else can you find such honest and unedited appraisals not driven by advertising. And, of course, 10 months a year, you'll get our exclusive 16-page newsletter that will keep you up to date on the safe spots to travel and where you should avoid traveling, with stories by our undercover writers who pay their own way. Get the latest on the Keys, Belize, Indonesia, Bonaire, Hawaii; Undercurrent is there. And we report on unique safety issues -- like that bent diver who ignored her computer and listened to her guide -- equipment, and much, much more. For two more days, I am offering you a seven-month trial subscription for just $19.95. And I'll send you a FREE download of my great scuba thriller set in Belize -- Tropical Ice. If at any time during this period you want your money back, you'll get it, a promise I've kept since 1975. Click Here.

Stay Safe

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDDavison@undercurrent.org